Special Relativity: Resolving the Twin Paradox while Proving the Traveling Twin Cannot be Younger

In special relativity, the “Twin Paradox” occurs when one twin makes a round trip journey. Lorentz transformations do not define which twin will be younger, only that they cannot be the same age upon return. Solutions that use discussions of inertial frames as well as accounting for acceleration and deceleration have been proposed to determine which twin is traveling. Over more than a century, many articles have been published to support the concept that the traveling twin will be younger upon return; however many of these arguments have flaws. This paper proposes a novel solution to resolving the “Twin Paradox” that requires that the traveling twin cannot return younger. While studying light propagation in the direction normal to the motion between two frames, it was discovered that the currently accepted principle of a younger traveling twin is in error. Additionally, it allows us to identify who is the traveler without ambiguity. The main argument against the currently accepted paradigm arises from this set-up which shows the apparent speed of light measured by the traveling twin, with the assumption that he will be younger, will be faster than the maximum permissible value c that is the speed of light in an inertial frame through a vacuum. That demonstrates a fundamental violation of the universally accepted limit on the speed of any entity. Further analysis shows that the traveling twin actually will be older as opposed to younger and will reverse the aging relation that is currently accepted.